Nintendo Power V254
Nintendo Power V254 is the 254th issue of Nintendo Power released in April of 2010. It featured Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the cover. Contained within was the world reveal of Conduit 2, an interview with Daiki Iwamoto who was the director of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, an analysis of Metroid: Other M, and a feature on Arc Rise Fantasia. News Some of this month's news: *''Tetris Party, a WiiWare downloadable game, is getting an retail upgrade in the form of ''Tetris Party Deluxe for the Wii and Nintendo DS. Tetris Party Deluxe will have a ton of new modes along with online play for both console and handheld system. *''Hard Grip: The Climbing Game'' appears to be the first true rock climbing game for the Wii. Using a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk or two Wii Remotes, players scale mountains while avoiding obstacles and judging their stamina as they compete in the "Extreme Sports World Challenge". *Slowly but surely details about The Last Story are being unveiled. Concept artwork is currently shown on the official japanese site with a promise of a more medieval setting. *WayForward is heading development for Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Videogame for the Wii and DS. The game features two player co-operative play, where one person plays as Batman and the other plays as one of the famed heroes from the show of the same name. *''Guilty Party'' is a mystery game that doubles as a party game, Simultaneous multiplayer allows people to compete or work together as they try to crack the case in this offbeat Wii game. *''Dragon Ball: Origins 2'' is set for release for Summer 2010. It retains some similarities to the first Origins game, though there will be new features such as co-operative play via a wireless multiplayer mode and a two-dimensional viewpoint during select boss battles (as opposed to the 3/4 perspective most of the game is in). *''Rock of the Dead, as a change of pace, allows you to vanquish zombies, monsters and other creatures through well played guitar musicianship. *Square-Enix is releasing a series of collectible items in their formation arts line that display various ''Chrono Trigger characters in still poses. *Other games announced at press time: Samurai Warriors 3, EA Sports Active 2.0, NHL 2K11, Toy Story 3 and Rock Band 3. Download "What Lies Beneath": Dive: The Medes Islands Secret From Cosmonaut games and Over the Top Games (who created NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits) comes Dive: The Medes Islands Secret. Described by Nintendo Power as "part Endless Ocean, part Metroid", Dive allows gamers to explore the ocean depths in huge seamless areas in search of treasure. You control John Sanders, an explorer and researcher who wears full-on scuba gear throughout the game and keeps a harpoon on hand to protect himself from the ocean's wildlife. As you earn cash, you can outfit Sanders with different wetsuits, oxygen tanks, fins, harpoon guns and lanterns. Getting better equipment allows you to explore more of the game and possibly discover the secret of the Medes Island. "Shantae Uncorked": Shantae: Risky's Revenge In continuation of the series of articles about Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Nintendo Power got around to previewing some gameplay elements, plotlines and characters for the DSiWare title. The star of the game is Shantae, a young woman who is an avid belly dancer and can beat up enemies with her hair. Her best friend is Sky, a bird trainer who is sort of a role model for Shantae. Another friend is Rottytops, a zombie with questionable morals who shows up at random times. Then there is Uncle Mimic, a treasure hunter who adopted Shantae and looks after her. At the start of the game Uncle Mimic shows of a magic oil lamp at a big town expo. That's when Shantae's arch-nemesis, Risky Boots, explodes into the scene, steals the magic oil lamp, and then battles against her Shantae with her giant ship. Shantae wins the fight but Risky escapes with the lamp, and the rest of the game follows Shantae as she tries to prevent Risky from unleashing the power of this mysterious item. There are plenty of skills for Shantae to obtain in this game. When she belly dances, she can change forms that allow her to climb trees, enter small spaces, smash objects, and swim through water. Shantae can also use magical abilities. One ability allows her to shoot fireballs, another shields her from danger and the last blasts enemies with lightening or explosions from a cloud. Each ability has three levels of power for even more destructive attacks. There are times, though, when all Shantae has to do is leap out of the way. When an area allows it, Shantae can leap into the background or foreground. By doing this, she can get past obstacles and continue on her adventure. "The Complete Story": Cave Story Cave Story has three bonus modes outside of the regular story mode that are worth mentioning. In Boss Attack mode your objective is to defeat every boss in the game in the shortest amount of time. In Sanctuary Time Attack mode you must get through the Sanctuary secret area as quickly as you can. Curly Story mode is somewhat more laid back, you get to take your time and play the main adventure as Curly Brace. "All Your Bass are Belong to Us": Mega Man 10 downloadable content Not all of the content for Mega Man 10 was released at once. On April 5, Bass became available for download as a playable character. Bass can dash, merge with his dog Treble, and fire in multiple directions. Special stages were also made available in April; three new time-attach stages with bosses taken from the Game Boy Mega Man games and an Endless Stage mode now become part of the Mega Man 10 package. "Photo-Finish Him!": Photo Dojo Photo Dojo allows anyone with a Nintendo DSi to become a part of a fighting game. You take pictures of yourself and others in 13 poses (such as punching, kicking, or throwing a fireball) that become your character's in-game moveset. You can also record sound effects heard from your character during battle. There are currently two modes; single-player mode pits you against 100 enemies controlled by the computer while two-player mode let's you and a friend fight the characters each of you created. All of this fighting occurs against a backdrop composed from your photos as well. Evaluation Station The following reviews are for download-able games for the Wii and the Nintendo DSi. "Recommended" is a critic's positive response, "Hmmm..." is a lukewarm response, and "Grumble Grumble" is a poor response. |-valign="top" |'WiiWare' * Art of Balance - Recommended * Dart Rage - Recommended * Dracula: Undead Awakening - Hmmm... * Family Go-Kart Racing - Grumble Grumble * GhostSlayer - Grumble Grumble * Happy Hammerin' - Hmmm... * Max & the Magic Marker - Recommended * Mouse House - Hmmm... * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All - Recommended * Warmen Tactics - Grumble Grumble |'DSiWare' * 4 Travellers: Play Spanish - Grumble Grumble * Aura-Aura Climber - Recommended * Dracula: Undead Awakening - Hmmm... * Elemental Masters - Recommended * Flight Control - Recommended * Flipper - Hmmm... * Globulos Party - Recommended * Let's Golf - Grumble Grumble * Prehistorik Man - Grumble Grumble * Real Soccer 2010 - Hmmm... * Scrabble Classic - Recommended * Spaceball: Revolution - Hmmm... * Spotto! - Hmmm... * VT Tennis - Hmmm... |} Features "Metroid Mysteries Solved": Metroid: Other M This article was the first hands-on preview of the much anticipated Metroid: Other M. There were plenty questions raised in the months since the game was announced; though Steve Thomason, the writer, found some answers that should satisfy Metroid fans. The article was split in to four sections detailing game mechanics, plot, development and the overall sense of how it fits into the ''Metroid'' series. It’s become well known that players mostly control Samus Aran while in a third-person perspective, a drastic change from the Metroid Prime games. it's also well known that Team Ninja is contributing heavily to the development of Metroid: Other M., and this is most evident in the gameplay. The writer compared Samus Aran to Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa in how our heroine "feels quicker and more nimble than ever" and even seems to have picked up a few "ninja-inspired moves", like a new dodge move that can be used right before an enemy strikes. The rest of Samus’ moveset is pretty familiar, as always she has the ability to use her arm cannon, turn into a morph ball and fire her missiles. There is a catch with using the missiles though; they can only be fired in first-person perspective. Besides the use missiles, first-person perspective can also be used to find secrets hidden from view in the normal third-person perspective. The story takes place after the events in Super Metroid and beginning largely deals with the despair that Samus feels after her traumatic experience. The writer noted the large number of cut scenes and "heavy emphasis on narrative", which is uncommon for a Metroid game. He also admitted to being a "bit concerned" by the "pervasive melancholy" found in Samus’ thoughts and words. Overall though, the Metroid: Other M feels like it should fit right into the rest of the series, especially considering it’s focus on exploration and it’s abundance of classic elements. Departments *'Pulse': With the announced dates of Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor and Metroid: Other M so close together at press time, Chris Slate anticipated the games that would appear in the second half the year. Meanwhile, readers wrote in what they thought was the most underrated game. *'Previews': The games previewed this month were All Star Karate, Attack of the Movies 3D, FlingSmash, Iron Man 2, Pirates Plund-Arrr, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, River City Soccer Hooligans, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 and Transformers: War for Cybertron-Autobots/Decepticons *'Power Profiles #39': Interview with Jeremiah Slaczka, the cofounder and creative director of 5th Cell. He's created games like Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest, though he is probably best known as the man behind Scribblenauts and it's sequel. *'Playback': A look back at Mega Man 64, an adventure game for the Nintendo 64, released in February 2001. Reviews With only four reviews (Three for Wii and one for the Nintendo DS), this month's section had the smallest amount of reviews in recent memory. The much anticipated Red Steel 2 scored a 8.0, while Monster Hunter Tri received a 9.0 with a whopping four pages devoted to its review (In comparison the review for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa got one quarter of a page). :Please use the symbols next to each heading to sort the games by "title", "score", "console", "reviewer" and "ESRB rating". Staff (The Toad Brigade) *EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Slate *EXECUTIVE EDITOR Steve Thomason *SENIOR EDITOR Chris Hoffman *ASSOCIATE EDITOR Justin Cheng *ART DIRECTOR Chris Imlay *CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Patrick Cunningham, Andrew Hayward, Casey Loe, Nathan Meunier, Randy Nelson, George Sinfield, David F. Smith, Phil Theobald *COPY EDITOR Candace Cunningham *LICENSING MANAGER Frances Wall Jha See also *Nintendo Power Volumes Category:Nintendo Power